The John Steinbeck Award: "In the Souls of the People."

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The John Steinbeck Award is given to writers, artists, thinkers, and activists whose
work captures Steinbeck’s empathy, commitment to democratic values, and belief in
the dignity of people who by circumstance are pushed to the fringes. The phrase “in
the souls of the people” comes from Chapter 25 of The Grapes of Wrath. This section of the book, and particularly this phrase, encapsulates the writer’s
enduring legacy as an engaged and socially aware artist. Steinbeck wrote with unflinching
honesty about people who were pitied and rejected by others. Americans were his people,
regardless of their position in society.

The Steinbeck Award is sponsored by the Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies
and Catherine Busalacchi, Executive Director of Student Union, Inc. Ted Cady, the chair of the Center’s award selection committee and Event Director
for the Student Union, has organized Award presentations and has brought each of the
honorees to appreciate the Award’s meaning and the importance of Steinbeck’s legacy
here at San José State.

1996 - Bruce Springsteen

It began with the Boss. On October 26, Bruce Springsteen came to San José State for
a concert to benefit the Center for Steinbeck Studies. Normally accompanied by his
legendary E Street Band, Springsteen performed solo on the Steinbeck-themed folk album
The Ghost of Tom Joad. Before a capacity crowd of 4,600 at the Event Center Arena, Springsteen played an
impeccable acoustic set, capped by his sensitive reading of a closing passage from
The Grapes of Wrath. At a reception afterward, Springsteen was presented the first John Steinbeck Award
by Elaine Steinbeck, the author's widow. Said Elaine Steinbeck, "If my husband were
alive, he would have wanted every word Bruce sang tonight included in a prologue of
The Grapes of Wrath."

1998 - John Sayles

When approaching John Sayles, the selection committee was unaware that he had directed
the iconic videos for the Springsteen classics "I'm on Fire," "Glory Days," and "Born
in the USA." To the committee, Sayles was known only as an acclaimed author and the
writer-director of independent film classics such as Lone Star, Matewan, and Return of the Secaucus 7. On the afternoon of February 14, Sayles came to campus and regaled students with
film clips and stories of filmmaking. Later that evening Sayles appeared at the Town
Theater for a premiere of his Spanish language film Men with Guns and accepted the John Steinbeck Award from Dr. Martha Heasley Cox. Of Steinbeck,
Sayles said, "What I remember most about him is how he developed a sense of place.
And his characters actually worked for a living!"

1999 - Arthur Miller

The author of classics such as The Crucible and Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller was one of the greatest playwrights of the 20th century. Miller is
also the only one of our honorees known to be a close associate of Steinbeck. Willing
to depict the dark side of the American Dream, Miller probed complex moral and psychological
themes. Steinbeck admired Miller as a writer and as a courageous man and defended
Miller's refusal to offer names and cooperate with the witch-hunting House Committee
on Un-American Activities. On April 22, after a well-attended reading at Morris Dailey
Auditorium, Miller appeared at a reception and was given the John Steinbeck Award
by Dr. Susan Shillinglaw. Later, Elaine Steinbeck wrote, "John would be thrilled to
have Arty receive this award."

2002 - Jackson Browne

Through masterful albums such as Late for the Sky, The Pretender, and I'm Alive, Jackson Browne has crafted a catalog of some of the most poetic and literate pop
songs ever written. And as a social activist and early crusader for environmental
causes, Browne has always dared be in the forefront. A highlight of the Steinbeck
Centennial (1902-2002) had to be Browne's benefit concert at the Fox Theatre in Redwood
City on Steinbeck's birthday, February 27. The previous night, at a dinner at the
Capital Club in San José, Browne received the Award and in his acceptance speech talked
about his father's great love of Steinbeck's writing. "Now, my father and I may have
had our differences," said Browne, "but at least we could agree on Steinbeck."

2002 - Studs Terkel

Raconteur and radio host, author and activist -- Studs Terkel was a national treasure,
but probably more important to him, the pride of Chicago. His daily radio show on
WFMT in Chicago ran for five decades, during which Terkel interviewed luminaries such
as Bertrand Russell, Maya Angelou, Pete Seeger, and Muhammad Ali. But Terkel may be
better known for taping off-the-air conversations with ordinary Americans, talk that
served as the source of books such as Hard Times, Working, and The Good War. On October 2, at a packed Herbst Theatre in San Francisco, Terkel appeared in conversation
with longtime friend Calvin Trillin and received the Steinbeck Award. Trillin reminded
the audience that Terkel had written the introduction to the 50th Anniversary Edition
of The Grapes of Wrath, a book Terkel called "an anthem in praise of community."

2003 - Joan Baez

With her smooth soprano voice and her steadfast commitment to pacifism and civil rights,
Joan Baez was a major figure both in the 60's folk music scene and in the civil rights
movement. In those turbulent times, Baez sang and spoke of freedom everywhere from
the Royal Albert Hall in London to the back of flatbed trucks in Mississippi to the
steps of the Lincoln Memorial at the historic March on Washington. On those steps
in 1963, Baez led 500,000 people in singing "We Shall Overcome." On February 26, 2003,
Baez received the Steinbeck Award at a reception after a benefit concert at the Fox
Theatre in Redwood City. Just a few days prior, Baez had been in San Francisco taking
part in an anti-war rally.

2004 - Sean Penn

On September 10 at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, a capacity crowd heard
social activist and actor Sean Penn offer candid answers to his interviewer Peter
Coyote, as expected. But the audience could scarcely believe what they saw as the
benefit was concluding: Bruce Springsteen, unexpected and unannounced, walking onstage
to present the Steinbeck Award. Of the Academy Award-winning actor, Springsteen said,
"He risks his coolness with the choices he makes. He never cheats his audience.” Penn
thanked Springsteen, calling him "one of the most creative inspirations in my life,"
and then asked for the audience's indulgence as he read a five-minute passage railing
against war. It sounded like vintage Penn, but as Penn revealed, the author was in
fact John Steinbeck.

2007 - Garrison Keillor

Actor, author, singer, screenwriter -- Garrison Keillor is all of these. But mostly
he will be known for being the discoverer of the Lake Wobegon effect and the creator
and host of a decades-long mainstay of radio called A Prairie Home Companion. On September 23 at the Marin Civic Auditorium in San Rafael, before a capacity crowd
of 2,000, Keillor received the John Steinbeck Award from the author’s son, Thomas
Steinbeck, who said, "Garrison Keillor is one of America's great treasures because
he is first and foremost a man of the people, by the people, and for the people."
Of the Steinbeck Award, Keillor wrote, "The Pulitzer is named for a publisher; the
Nobel for the inventor of dynamite. It's a greater honor to receive an award named
for a writer, especially Mr. Steinbeck, the hero of my youth."

2010 - Dolores Huerta

The three themes of legendary civil rights activist Dolores Huerta’s life have been
community, community, and community. On September 23, Huerta took part in a panel
discussion in Morris Dailey Auditorium with Thomas A. Saenz, president of the Mexican
American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and three members of the activist band
Ozomatli. The discussion addressed controversial legislation in Arizona, the delay
of the Dream Act, the threat of deportations, and the need for a new Chicano rights
movement -- all subjects that would have interested Steinbeck. Fittingly, at the end
of the evening, as she received the Steinbeck Award, Huerta led all assembled in a
cheer of “¡Viva John Steinbeck!”

2010 - Michael Moore

Arch-conservative Sarah Palin and leftist maverick Michael Moore appeared at separate
events in San José on October 14. But only Moore left town with an award. With his
fiery comments on Hollywood films and American politics, the Academy Award-winning
filmmaker and bestselling author enthralled an overflow audience at Morris Dailey
Auditorium. After Moore's Steinbeck event, audience member Steve Wozniak, co-founder
of Apple, said, "I think the whole idea around Michael Moore is that the ones that
are super-wealthy, the powerful, should not be more important the common people.”
For weeks after receiving the Steinbeck Award, Moore could be seen on national television
shows wearing a San José State cap.

2012 - Rachel Maddow

On February 25, MSNBC host and Castro Valley native Rachel Maddow spoke about her
career in talk radio, her cable television show, and her reputation as “the champion
of mind over chatter.” Maddow received her Steinbeck Award from Thom Steinbeck, who
said, “My father would have adored Rachel Maddow. Listening to her is like listening
to Walter Cronkite. We have that kind of trust in her.” Maddow told the audience she
was humbled by the honor. “To me, John Steinbeck was larger than life, and I can’t
believe I’m going to be linked to the previous recipients.”

2012 - John Mellencamp

Leave it to the avowed contrarian to make his Steinbeck event his own. Classic rocker
and Farm Aid co-founder John Mellencamp would not settle for a mere conversation or
just another concert, so he developed a hybrid for his July 30 appearance at the California
Theatre in San José. One part conversation (with Bob Santelli of the Grammy Museum)
and one part concert (with full-band accompaniment), Mellencamp brought down the house
for his sold-out benefit for the Steinbeck Center. After receiving the Award from
Dr. Paul Douglass, Mellencamp said of Steinbeck, "His remarkable ability to give voice
to the common man and to people on society's margins continues to inspire me. I'm
honored to be given an award in his name."

2013 - Ken Burns

It has been said that more Americans get their history from Ken Burns than from any
other source. From The National Parks to our national pastime (Baseball), from The Civil War to The Dust Bowl, Burns has told the tales of America’s trials and triumphs. On the evening of December
6 in Morris Dailey Auditorium, Burns discussed his career with KQED radio host Michael
Krasny. Then, with three members of the Roosevelt family in the audience, he treated
the auditorium to a preview of his new series, The Roosevelts: An Intimate History.

2014 - Khaled Hosseini

To commemorate the 75th anniversary of The Grapes of Wrath, the Steinbeck Award was presented to novelist and San José resident Khaled Hosseini,
who has frequently cited Steinbeck’s great novel for its effect on him as a teenage
immigrant from Afghanistan. In novels such as The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, Hosseini created powerful portrayals of the disconnected and dispossessed, and in
a September 10 conversation with KGO’s Pat Thurston onstage at the New Student Union
Ballroom, Hosseini discussed his work as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations
Refugee Agency. Hosseini said, “If Steinbeck were alive, he’d be in his element in
Afghanistan. In Syria, in Chad, and in Afghanistan, I suspect you’ll find a large
number of Ma Joads.”

2015 - Ruby Bridges

In Travels with Charley, Steinbeck described the travails of a six-year-old black girl chosen to integrate
an all-white elementary school in the Deep South of 1960. At the time, he did not
know her name. But thanks to the presentation of the Steinbeck Award to this civil
rights icon on February 24, 2016, before a capacity crowd in the Student Union Ballroom,
the names John Steinbeck and Ruby Bridges are now linked forever. The award presentation
by Nicholas Taylor capped an evening featuring an interview of Bridges by KQED's Joshua
Johnson in which Bridges called racism an adult disease and asked that we stop using
children to spread it. John Steinbeck, Nobel Laureate, couldn't have said it better.

2016 - Francisco Jiménez

When he read The Grapes of Wrath in high school, author Francisco Jiménez said it was the first time he read something
to which he could relate. In the Joad family, he saw his own family, working in the
fields, struggling every day. Over the course of a remarkable life that saw him rise
from the cotton fields of Corcoran to the hallowed halls of Columbia University, Dr.
Jimenez went from living a life like one of the characters in Steinbeck’s novels to
living a life like Steinbeck himself. On September 28, 2016, in front of an overflow
crowd in the Student Union Theater, Dr. Jiménez received the sixteenth Steinbeck Award after
a lively and inspirational conversation with the political cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz.